“Salted with insights and epigrams, the book is argued with bracing honesty and flashes of authentic wisdom…[an] excellent book.” —Andrew Solomon, The New York Times Book Review
"[A] richly woven, entertaining, enlightening, wrenching and funny book.” —The Washington Post
Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of children on their parents?
In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior tries to tackle this question, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear.
Recruiting from a wide variety of sources—in history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology—she dissects both the timeless strains of parenting and the ones that are brand new, and then brings her research to life in the homes of ordinary parents around the country. The result is an unforgettable series of family portraits, starting with parents of young children and progressing to parents of teens. Through lively and accessible storytelling, Senior follows these mothers and fathers as they wrestle with some of parenthood's deepest vexations—and luxuriate in some of its finest rewards.
Meticulously researched yet imbued with emotional intelligence, All Joy and No Fun makes us reconsider some of our culture's most basic beliefs about parenthood, all while illuminating the profound ways children deepen and add purpose to our lives. By focusing on parenthood, rather than parenting, the book is original and essential reading for mothers and fathers of today—and tomorrow.
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“Reading Jennifer Senior’s lively and
weirdly comforting All Joy and No Fun
was like attending the self-help group for beleaguered parents that I never
knew I needed. (‘Hi, my name is Neal, and I’m a parent-aholic…’) Far afield
from the headline-grabbing shockers in books like Tiger Mom, this is a
thoughtful and deeply researched look at the reality of modern day parenthood:
we love our kids, and they make us crazy, and it’s all our fault. The book grew
from Senior’s eye-raising New York
magazine piece, in which she explored the dark side of parenting—the
depression, the marital woes, the loss of self-worth. Sure, raising kids is, ultimately,
deeply rewarding. But on a day to day basis? Sometimes a bummer. Parenthood has
changed a lot since World War II, as more women entered the workforce, dads
became more engaged in child rearing, and an ‘asymmetrical’ parent-child
relationship evolved. We’re doing more for our kids, but they’re doing less for
us. ‘Children went from being our employees to our bosses,’ Senior writes. If
you want to be a better parent—or, maybe more importantly, to feel better about
the parent you’ve become—you need this book. And, probably, a nap.”
—
Amazon.com, editorial review